Monday, November 07, 2016

That expert’s name is Stephanie Izard, and after winning the fourth season of Top Chef, she opened a Chicago restaurant called The Girl and the Goat. She serves a number of goat-focused dishes there, like goat empanadas and goat carpaccio, and she also offers entire goat legs for pre-order. There’s no one better they could have found to roast a whole goat for them in Chicago.

“Bud talked about it, that urgent feeling of belief that is brewing among our players as they look at themselves and they look around the league in the division and go, ‘OK, we should really start to win games and put pressure on ourselves and pressure on the rest of the division and the National League to get back into the playoffs here,’” said general manager Jeff Bridich. “That’s a wonderful place to be, and I think it’s an honest place to be for who we are right now.

Or the Indians can regress, get injured, and end up being a one-year wonder.

With Bauer, Carrasco, Kluber and Salazar, the Indians are in good shape in their rotation, leaving Tomlin, Mike Clevinger and Cody Anderson as fifth-starter/depth alternatives. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the team bring in additional options, but barring a trade, don’t expect any big names. Expect opposing teams to make calls about Carrasco and Salazar this off-season, presenting Antonetti and Chernoff with options ...

The eight finalists for the 2017 Frick Award are: Gary Cohen, Ken Coleman, Jacques Doucet, Ken Harrelson, Pat Hughes, Bill King, Ned Martin and Dewayne Staats. The winner of the 2017 Frick Award will be announced on Dec. 7 at the Baseball Winter Meetings in National Harbor, Md., and will be honored during the July 29 Awards Presentation as part of the July 28-31 Hall of Fame Weekend 2017 in Cooperstown. All candidates except King and Martin are living.

At a cost of $1bn to put a chill in the air during Texas Rangers games, it would surely go down as the sports world’s most expensive air-conditioning bill.

Voters in the city that is home to the Rangers go to the polls on Tuesday to decide whether to finance a new Major League Baseball stadium that would replace a popular facility that is barely two decades old.

The election raises the question of how much a team is really worth to its community, and whether, just a few days ...

“Do a lot of listening. Try to meet with as many people as you can and get their thoughts,” he said. “We’re looking at it from across the country, so it’s more about gathering the opinions of that staff that’s been here and what they think went wrong and then maybe layering over some objective opinions on that as well to hopefully figure out a way to turn it around.”

Falvey and Levine, who both got five-year contracts, were introduced at a news conference later Monday morning. The two are part of the wave of baseball executives who place an emphasis on analytics, but Falvey said, “We will have a commitment to understanding metrics but we’ll always be making human decisions.”

Said Levine: “In the healthiest decisionmaking cycles, analytics plays a meaningful role but not a decisive role … [analytics] will ...

A letter written in the home of Joe Tinker in Chicago and reaching [Philadelphia yesterday], told that Frank Chance, the veteran manager, had been appointed leader of the Cubs to succeed Tinker. The letter was received by Wade Powers, a local fan, from his mother, Mrs. J.A. Powers, who left Philadelphia last week to visit the Tinker household. Mrs. Powers is a sister of the mother-in-law of Tinker…

The argument, made by several chroniclers of the game, is that there was no standout performance by a starting pitcher in the AL this year, opening the door for a standout reliever to claim the prize. The voters are literally saying “since we can’t pick between the two best pitchers in the league, we’ll give it to a third pitcher who wasn’t as good.”
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In what universe does it make sense to penalize a pitcher for being the best, but only the best by a little bit? Michael Phelps gets the gold ...

A World Series game seven for the ages offered some rare relief from the most bitter presidential election in recent memory.
The Chicago Cubs, in carrying off their first title since 1908 when Theodore Roosevelt was president, finally proved that no curse is forever and offered a few moments of hope fulfilled and optimism — two qualities badly lacking from this grimmest of presidential races.

Carlos Gomez: The former Mets outfielder, who nearly returned in 2015 at the trade deadline before the club acquired Cespedes, had a resurgence with the Rangers over the final two months of the season after a brutal first half with Houston. Gomez hit 13 homers in 118 games and is still a threat on the bases (18 stolen bases), but he may have lost a step defensively.

“This is a tough place, a fun place and a not-so-fun place to play all wrapped into one. No lead feels safe,” Black said about Coors Field during his last season with the Padres. “And no lead feels insurmountable when you are trying to attack. You always feel good about your ability to come back.”

Sunday, November 06, 2016

For a paltry 12 million, the Cubs could have had a really good long man/spot starte; or they could have signed and traded him. But they paid 2 million to let him walk. Hammels stands to make millions from this move as he becomes one of the best starters on the market.

“The trade market is our primary avenue to address those needs,” Silverman said. “It’s market-driven based on the teams’ interest in our players, what (teams) provide to us that meets those needs, both short term and long term.”

Or maybe at that point he and the Wilpons simply dig deep to keep Cespedes, realizing that sometimes overpaying for the right player is the price a New York franchise should be willing to pay for trying to win a championship.

As Alderson begins his seventh year as GM, the Mets are at that point. I’m convinced he knows it.

To this day, Maddon considers it maybe the greatest compliment he has ever received, because Mauch was a legendary tough guy—taciturn, demanding and frugal with praise. He also had one of the greatest baseball minds ever, someone who’d studied the ...

Silverman said the responsibility sharing is “unique” but said it works in their situation. “It’s custom-fit to our histories together and to our working relationships,” he said. “Because of their decade-long working relationship, Erik and Chaim are ideal partners to team up on the daily management of our department.”

Win-win presumably. Astros to get lottery ticket or money for a guy whom they would have released. The Phils get some bullpen help which they really need. It’s not like the Phils have 5 can’t-miss bullpen arms waiting to come to the majors in April.
I’ll set the over/under on comments for this thread at 1.5

The Cubs may be just getting started, as they’re exceptionally well-built for the long haul. Counting Willson Contreras (instead of Miguel Montero) as their starting catcher, they have every member of their starting lineup under club control through at least 2019 except for Fowler. First baseman Anthony Rizzo is locked into a very affordable deal that includes options for 2020 and ‘21, second baseman/leftfielder Ben Zobrist and rightfielder Jason Heyward are on board via more expensive ones, ...